Least Favorite American Accent

[Symmetry]

That's pretty cool. I've always known that English was evolved from German, or at least is closely related to it, but seeing some of the earlier English, you can really see those influences a lot better than with today's english.

And that's only Middle English. Old English gets even odder.

[tkr4lf]

Languages are interesting things. In a different world, I could totally see myself studying them. It's fascinating how they came to be, how they work, how they evolve, etc.

[tkr4lf]

I received this email today from my college alumni association. Coincidence? Or is saxi really a professor?

Talk Like a Philadelphian

Meredith Tamminga, Assistant Professor of Linguistics

Tuesday, February 3, 2015
6–7 p.m.
World Cafe Live
3025 Walnut Street

Philly folk have a unique way of speaking that extends far beyond “youse,” “jawn,” and “wit wiz or without?” Drawing on 40 years of intensive research conducted at Penn on the Philadelphia accent, Professor Tamminga will play recordings of speech of typical Philadelphians, identifying the words and sounds that make “Philly-speak” unique. She will cover some basic principles of how speech sounds are produced and measured, as well as how and why accents develop over time.

Man, Always Sunny in Philadelphia isn't very accurate at all. You never hear people talking like that.

[betiko]

There's no simple way to talk about this beyond saying that it's complicated. A big part of the problem arose from people wanting to get an "authentic" Latin. That basically meant Cicero. The Latin they were asking for was as alien to the Latin being used as a passage in English from Chaucer's time would be to you and I today,

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour,
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(so priketh hem Nature in hir corages),
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

That's English.

Well that s rather clear english to me, the spelling is what makes it mostly complicated.
If you read french authors from the middle ages, their french is just as wierd as this. There is no break throughout time, it s just evolution, something perpetually changing. Our native languages have seen many new words and expressions in the dictionary since our birth, and people 10 years younger than us don t express themselves the same way... So languages actually evolve in matter of years... Not even a full generation (which would be around 30 years). So imagine what a century.. And a millenium can do. This has to be seen as a tree with various branches creating diverse offsprings... Almost all our languages have the same indo-european root anyways.

[saxitoxin]

I received this email today from my college alumni association. Coincidence? Or is saxi really a professor?

Talk Like a Philadelphian

Meredith Tamminga, Assistant Professor of Linguistics

Tuesday, February 3, 2015
6–7 p.m.
World Cafe Live
3025 Walnut Street

Philly folk have a unique way of speaking that extends far beyond “youse,” “jawn,” and “wit wiz or without?” Drawing on 40 years of intensive research conducted at Penn on the Philadelphia accent, Professor Tamminga will play recordings of speech of typical Philadelphians, identifying the words and sounds that make “Philly-speak” unique. She will cover some basic principles of how speech sounds are produced and measured, as well as how and why accents develop over time.

I doubt I could get hired as a janitor at Penn, let alone a full professor.

I am, however, currently the Chancellor of Chico State University.

[TA1LGUNN3R]

Actually, being an Oregonian where there is ZERO accent, I enjoy all these BUT the heinous east coast "Boston"...that one grates on my last nerve. Love the Minnesotans....sound pretty much canadian

Everyone has an accent.

Yup, mostly when you re talking a language from another country. Some very few Londoners could say that, but an american claiming he has no accent when he speaks English... Just lol.

Hopefully you didn't claim the same loot... Cause f*ck me you aussies and kiwis talk an english from another planet.

Koolbak is actually correct. The accent that actors and like, news anchors use is what we speak in the Pac NW. With the exception of saying "for" as "fer," we're pretty neutral in the accent department.

-TG

[Symmetry]

There's no simple way to talk about this beyond saying that it's complicated. A big part of the problem arose from people wanting to get an "authentic" Latin. That basically meant Cicero. The Latin they were asking for was as alien to the Latin being used as a passage in English from Chaucer's time would be to you and I today,

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour,
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(so priketh hem Nature in hir corages),
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

That's English.

Well that s rather clear english to me, the spelling is what makes it mostly complicated.
If you read french authors from the middle ages, their french is just as wierd as this. There is no break throughout time, it s just evolution, something perpetually changing. Our native languages have seen many new words and expressions in the dictionary since our birth, and people 10 years younger than us don t express themselves the same way... So languages actually evolve in matter of years... Not even a full generation (which would be around 30 years). So imagine what a century.. And a millenium can do. This has to be seen as a tree with various branches creating diverse offsprings... Almost all our languages have the same indo-european root anyways.

I think that there are noticeable breaks. That's not to dismiss the evolution aspect you're proposing though. With English, we have the break of 1066 for example. An invasion that saw the ruling class of English speakers replaced by Norman French speakers. The language changed as the two sides co-existed.

A cow was still called a cow for the peasant farmers. When it got killed and cooked for a nobleman's table, it became beef.